Ground Game

With Fred Thompson out of the race, Mitt Romney has segued into the favored candidate of conservative bloggers. So, why do so many of Romney’s fellow Republicans running for president personally dislike him? Is it because of the large personal fortune he’s used to help make himself a viable contender? Is it opposition to his Mormon faith? Or, is it his willingness to make major pivots on issues for electoral convenience?

The Moderate Voice suggests it’s the latter:

The difficulty of dealing with a candidate like Mitt Romney, who reminds me less of his laudable father, the late Michigan governor George Romney and more of Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, is that he can baldly misrepresent the facts about himself and others, something he’s done repeatedly in this election cycle, and affect wounded rectitude when he gets called to the carpet for it.

While conservative Hot Air suggests that Romney let his establishment Republican friends boost his candidacy rather than going on the attack.

Meanwhile, some liberal bloggers like Matthew Yglesias have given Romney something of a pass, while others, like Daily Kos, asked Democrats to vote for him in the Michigan primary because they think he’s the least electable Republican, as many polls have indicated.

The liberal AMERICAblog ponders:

It's easy for us to dislike Mitt Romney. He's loathsome. But, what's interesting is how those who know him best -- his fellow Republican -- really can't stand the guy